By
Tommy G. Fuller
October, 2001
You may ask of my name "Old Glory"
From where did it come ?
Let me tell you And I’ll explain
In the year 1831
A twenty-four star banner was flown
Over a vessel called "Charles Doggett"
A Captain Stephen Driver
Exclaimed "Old Glory"
And I had my name
Captain Driver did retire To Nashville, Tennessee
And there he remained
As the Civil War broke out Confederates did
with greatest zeal
My hiding place to reveal
But they could not find
Where on top Of Captain Driver’s bed I remained
Then in 1862 The Union troops to Nashville
Did free
And a need arose For a flag to fly high
And that was me !
Captain Driver to his bed Did come
Ripping apart his own Bedcover did reveal
My Stars and Stripes anew
I was raised that day
To the shouts of
"Old Glory, there she waves"
But wait there is more of my History to reveal
I’m called Old Glory Although only cloth
I have stood for an idea
For almost two hundred And twenty five years
From an original thirteen colonies
To the United States Of fifty stars
In the beginning I stretched from Maine to Georgia
From the Atlantic Ocean toThe Appalachian Mountains
With these names I started my birth
Delaware ,
Pennsylvania
New Jersey
Georgia
Connecticut
Massachusetts
Maryland
South Carolina
New Hampshire
Virginia
New York
North Carolina
Rhode Island
Then by 1795 two more
Vermont
Kentucky
And when 1818 was the time
Five more stars I added
Tennessee
Ohio
Louisiana
Indiana
Mississippi
Next year 1819 saw
Illinois
And still by 1820 two more
Alabama and Maine
And in that year
I flew for the first time
On Pike’s Peak
Missouri in 1822 made
My stars a total of twenty four
Then Arkansas made me
Twenty five in 1836
Michigan in 1837 and the
Field of blue
Twenty-six stars I knew
1845 a sunny Florida
Did I add
And 1846 A star for
Texas came brand new
In one year more 1847
Iowa’s farmlands did I know
Another star for my
Field of blue
By 1848 thirty stars
With Wisconsin’s cheese
In the late 1850’s
A land of lakes
Called Minnesota
And a rich land in
The great northwest
Oregon
Did I add
And now my count I knew
To be thirty four
But still came more
Yes, by the 1860’s I had grown
Westward to beyond the
Mississippi to where the
Missouri rolls
And Pacific breezes cool
To the northwest to the
Great Lakes and Oregon
And southward
To the Gulf of Mexico
Then came the Civil War
And I was stained red
With the fallen of both
Blue and Gray
Three stars did I add
In this war
1861 Kansas wheat fields
1863 came West Virginia’s coal
1865 saw Nevada’s silver
If you see patches in me
Remember these words
Fort Sumter
Bull Run
The Wilderness
Appomattox
Antietam
Gettysburg
Vicksburg
Shiloh
From the end
Of this terrible war
To a new century
1900
I did add
1867 Nebraska’s
rich farm lands
1877 the beautiful Rockies
Of Colorado I knew
Then in 1890
The Dakotas
North and South
And also Montana’s
Big, big sky
Washington’s apples
And Idaho’s potatoes
Just try to have a
Meal without these
1891 and Yellowstone’s
Wyoming is where I flew
And then in 1892
A "Pledge of Allegiance"
Did I read
Penned by Francis Bellamy
By 1896 I was to see
Utah’s Great Salt Lake
By the year 1900
Forty-five states I knew
So many stars
And yet many more still to come
In 1907 I added one more
A native Cherokee word
"Oklahoma"
But still there were more
In 1907 also over the
Top of the World
I flew
As Admiral Peary
to the North Pole
Did plant me and
There I also flew
In 1912 I added two more
"Arizona" and "New Mexico"
And there I became the
Great Forty Eight States
But no more stars did I gain
Than World War One began
And I was stained again in red
"A War To End All Wars"
Is what they said
And here again
My list was expanded
Lusitania
Meuse - Argonne
No Man’s Land
Verdun
Jutland
Then came the eleventh hour
Of the eleventh month
1918
And peace once again
I knew
Still I flew
Prouder than ever
The Red
The White
The Blue
But this was not to last
For on a fateful
Sunday Morning
"A Day That Will Live In Infamy"
December the Seventh
One Thousand Nine Hundred
And Forty One
And the world would never
Be the same
Again the Red Stain
It came
As still more names
Were added to my list
Pearl Harbor
Battan
Corregidor
Guadalcanal
Guam
Luzon
Midway
Okinawa
Hiroshima
Nagasaki
Then on an August 14 day
Of the year 1945
President Truman
did proclaim
The very same flag
That O’re Pearl Harbor did fly
On December 7, 1941
Was flown over
The White House
In Washington’s Town
And then on a day
In Tokyo Bay
September the Second
One Thousand
Nine Hundred
And Forty Five
And Peace once again
And even more proudly
Than ever did I wave
But still another patch
Did I have to add
Called "Korea"
Then in peace again
I did wave
Then in the year 1959
My final two stars did I add
A cold north land
Called "Alaska"
And a tropical paradise
Called "Hawaii"
Since then I have flown
With fifty stars in my
Field of blue
The came July 20, 1969
I flew on a celestial object
Called "The Moon"
And still to this day
I’m the only symbol of
An Earthly Nation
That still flies there
Oh how proud I was !
I have flown through
The Age of Aquarius
And many more
Until there came a day
When you scaresly
Could find me flying
From any door
Then on a day
Of death and fear
When terrorists
With their dastardly deeds
Did strike
Their aim was to
Frighten, to alarm,
And to reduce what
I stood for
But to their own dismay
I now fly
Both night and day
For many an American
Has proudly displayed me
From their cars, planes, trains
And many more
If you want to know today
What I stand for
Just ask those who display
Me on their sweaters
Their caps and still more
And even as I cried
For those who died
My tears washed white
With Truth and Purity
The Freedoms for which
I still fly and stand
And in this purification
Of faith
I saw someone arise
From my past
A tall thin man
In a tall hat had arose
And there he began to speak
Once more
As he had done so many
Years before
His words broke forth
With new meaning for today
"We hold these truths to be
self evident
That these dead
Shall NOT have
Died in vain
But that this nation
Shall have a new
Birth of freedom
And the government
Of the people
For the people
And by the people
Shall not
Perish from the Earth"
His name
President Abraham Lincoln
And His Gettysberg Address
He quietly disappeared
And did promise to arise again
If ever the need arises
And now to all
Who are called by my name
Americans
I say
As long as you believe
And are not ashamed
As long as you continue
To display me and my name
I SHALL CONTINUE
TO FLY
O’RE THE LAND
OF THE FREE
AND
THE HOME OF THE BRAVE !